This thesis presents a Classical Action Research change intervention
concerned with 're-finding' lost Tacit Knowledge in a department (referred to as
Technical Operation Department) in a Healthcare Technology Organisation in the
United Kingdom. Identifying knowledge leakages in organisations, lost learning, and untapped knowledge resources can support the challenges of overcoming adversities in organisations today, including surviving crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as solving ongoing issues such as sustainability, waste, and efficiency (Rowan and Laffey, 2021).A Conceptual Framework of Organisational learning (OL) and knowledge management was used by adopting abductive reasoning and Classical Action Research approaches to answer the question: How can an integrated model of Knowledge Management / Organisational Learning be used to find lost and unknown Tacit Knowledge in a Healthcare Technology Organisation through a Classical Action Research change intervention? The Classical Action Research reported results from a six-month in-depth data collection from August 2017 to February 2018 collected in the field. The results and analysis show diminishing evidence of Nonaka & Takeuchi's (1995) SECI knowledge creation, as knowledge flows from the individual stage through to institutionalising and is absent in the feeding back of knowledge from institutionalising to intuiting.
Further to this is the over-reliance on an informal ad-hoc personalisation approach to Knowledge Management Strategy within limited evidence of codification strategy. Data has also shown that, as with KM Strategy, the learning culture is informal, bottom-up, and non-strategic. There was evidence of effective transformational leadership at the individual, group, and organisational levels in the Tech Ops Department in OX4. The leadership was positive regarding psychological safety, collaboration, employee inspiration and facilitation.